Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 21:24:13 -0500 (CDT) From: Licia <licia@o-o.org> To: Mike Avery <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Is it ok to use the FreeBSD name in a cyberpunkish fictional story? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9905122120210.29273-100000@o-o.org> In-Reply-To: <199905130225.VAA25787@hostigos.otherwhen.com>
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On Wed, 12 May 1999, Mike Avery wrote: > On 12 May 99, at 20:21, G. Adam Stanislav wrote: > > > At 18:42 12-05-1999 -0500, Licia wrote: > > > >(smiles) I've got to get around to writing that glossary :) c&e is slang > > >the characters use to mean 'compress and encrypt', I'll try to start a > > >glossary when I get episode 2 online, and update it with each new episode > > >:) > > > I have a better suggestion: Incorporate it in the story. When a slang term > > is used for the first time, find some excuse to explain to the reader what > > it means but not in an obvious way. > > > Otherwise you are forcing the reader to interrupt the reading experience > > just to look something up in a glossary. > > A very good point. When I am browsing in a book store and a work > of fiction has a glossary - or worse yet an explanation of a foreign > language the author and last 4 people the author slept with made up > while they were really wasted on their drug of choice - causes me to > look for another book. > > The writers job is to communicate. And if a work of fiction requires > a glassary, the author hasn't communicated. > > Mike > I agree to some extent. I don't favor the extensive and random use of a purely fictional language, but when you are doing a story in a genre that's not mainstream, it's just a courtesy to the "non initiate" to offer a clear definition they can refer to. The fact that there will be some slang and terminology that developes as a result of the characters close association with eachother over a long period of time, just means I need to expand that glossary the tiny amount needed to cover that. I have readers who don't know what a filesystem is, but who -do- want to read this story, so I need to accomodate them :) Or is it a matter of my not being able to communicate, if I can't explain Computer Science 101 completely in context without seeming too artificial? :) [ EMail : licia@o-o.org ] [ Name : Christine (Licia) Maxwell ] [ Home : http://www.o-o.org/~licia/ ] [ Hobbies : write, program, web, chat ] [ BBS : http://www.o-o.org/bbs/ ] [ Handles : Licia / LadyWolf / Sysop ] [ OS : http://www.freebsd.org/ ] [ Profiled: finger profiled@o-o.org ] To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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